MAAS Group (ASX:MGH) shares fell sharply on Monday, touching a more-than six-month low as the market reacted to Firmus's decision to cancel its planned $5 billion initial public offering. The drop extended a severe selloff that began late last week following the aborted listing.
In intraday trade MAAS Group declined 11.2% to A$4.11, marking the lowest level for the stock since April 2. The share price moved within a session range of A$4.11 to A$4.50 and displayed unusually high trading volume. By contrast, the S&P/ASX All Australian 200 index rose 0.6% to around 8,754 points during the same session.
The latest falls follow a 22.4% slump on Thursday and a further 6.7% drop on Friday, amplifying the rapid decline that began after doubts emerged around Firmus's planned public listing.
Firmus, which counts Nvidia among its backers, announced on Friday that it had withdrawn the intended IPO, citing market volatility and prevailing market conditions, and said it would instead seek private-market funding. The cancellation removes a potential public-market valuation benchmark and a liquidity route for MAAS Group's 3.2% stake in Firmus.
MAAS Group has invested a total of A$410 million in the data centre operator. That holding has come under renewed scrutiny as investors reassess its value in the absence of a public listing that could have established a market price.
Concerns about MAAS Group's exposure to Firmus go beyond the equity stake. The company's JLE Group electrical infrastructure unit is carrying roughly A$1.1 billion in orders from Firmus for electrical infrastructure and modular power equipment intended for the data centre operator's planned AI facilities across fiscal 2026 and fiscal 2027. These contracted orders are a material component of MAAS Group's commercial pipeline.
MAAS Group said on Friday that the existing contracts with Firmus remained in place and that it had received A$373 million in payments under those arrangements. The company also stated it expected the contracted work to be completed by the end of 2027.
Even with contracts and partial payments in place, the collapse of Firmus's IPO has intensified scrutiny of Firmus's ability to secure the funding needed to execute its expansion plans and the potential risks to MAAS should the operator encounter financing difficulties.
Market participants have been watching the situation closely given the scale of MAAS Group's investment and the multi-year order backlog tied to Firmus. The immediate market reaction has been steep selling pressure on MAAS shares, reflected in the consecutive large percentage declines across Thursday, Friday and Monday.
At present there is no new public-market valuation for Firmus to benchmark MAAS Group's 3.2% stake, and the data centre operator's choice to pursue private funding leaves questions about timing and structure of any future liquidity events.
Investors and analysts will likely monitor several items going forward, including Firmus's fundraising progress in private markets, the execution of the A$1.1 billion order book held by JLE Group, and any further updates from MAAS Group on the status of its contracts and payments.